Kelly’s Valentines Exchange occurred today, so while we felt as if we missed the party boat last week, we actually missed nothing at all.  Sara’s teachers held her bag for her, and she took her Valentines to school today.  When did the rules change, and everyone started adding candy to their Valentines?  I was thrilled just to get tiny cards in my pretty shoebox.  These kids today!  I had intended to make tiny pinwheel barrettes with Valentine themed fabric for the girls in each class (sorry boys, you were getting pencils), but that idea had to be put on the back burner.  Losing 8 days to the blizzards means everything I took with me to DC got done, and everything left at home is running a tad behind.

I posted Sara’s Valentines yesterday, and I failed to post Kelly’s…because I didn’t actually print them until last night.  And by “I printed”, of course I mean, “Greg formatted, printed, turned them over, printed the back with the title of the painting, and then gave them to me for cutting”.  Her last artwork that I turned into cards, she named, “Dat Purple One”.  Interestingly enough, I asked her last night to name this painting, and keeping with theme, she named it, “That Good One”.

On Valentines morning, Sara asked if she could make a love potion.  I didn’t have the guts to ask her where she learned that phrase, probably from “The Little Mermaid” (and other reasons we think Disney is healthy for our kids, but isn’t, but we can’t turn it off because it’s Disney).  It was identical to a game of recipe, except she insisted a proper potion would be liquid, requiring water, and really, who was I to argue with that kind of alchemy-accuracy?  The addition of sprinkles and cocoa powder made it especially gross, and the minced onion made it more of a “Shrek” style love potion, but the girls were happy for at least an hour, mixing and stirring, and shoving the marshmallows into their cheeks when I wasn’t looking.

P.S. The “sugar busters” diet we put the girls on is working.  We really didn’t have a handle on how much sugar was creeping into their diet until we took every ounce of it away.  Fruit snacks, grape juice, a tiny piece of candy in the afternoon, snacks with maybe a tad too much sugar, syrup on the pancakes…it was adding up.  They are sleeping like logs, and today (and I know it won’t last, but let me savor the moment), they listened and behaved like little angels.  The first day was hilarious.  Sara had a meltdown in the pantry and when Kelly came down for her snack, Sara dramatically told her, “Don’t BOTHER Kelly!  There is nothing in there but crackers and granola bars.  The kind WITHOUT CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!”  By today, they seemed resigned to the new reality.  We’ll be taking this idea one day at a time, but if they keep sleeping like this?  They won’t see sugar until they cut their own wedding cakes.